The Digger's Diary Corporal Claude Nuttall MM 23rd Battalion
When museum curator Colin Reid received a bullet-pierced diary for an exhibition, it sparks a 22-year quest to uncover the story of Corporal Claude Nuttall MM, an Australian soldier in World War I. Tracing a paper trail from England to the battlefields of Europe and Australia, The Digger's Diary restores a forgotten life and connects families across a century.
A family friend writes of the diary,' Claude was married to my wife's great Aunt Violet and on remembrance Sunday at Claude's old church, my son Robert presented to Claude's nephew and wider family, the blood stained diary with Claude's last entry on the 10th August 1918. The diary was found on a tip along with his medals the tip was at Norton Stourbridge UK in the 1960's. Violet had married again and we think that Violet's second family had thrown Claude's items away. My wife however rescued other items from their old damp farmhouse prior to it being demolished in the 1970's.
Claude Millton Rich Nuttall was born on 3rd July 1895 in Cheltenham, Victoria. His parents were Frederick William Nuttal and Emma Maud Louisa Rich.
He enlisted on 12th July 1915 with the AIF, he was allotted to the 23rd Battalion, 4th reinforcements - The Unit embarked from Melbourne on board HMAT Honorata on 27th September 1915. Nuttall was awarded a Military Medal on 29th July 1916 for bravery in the field. In August of 1916 that Claude was awarded the Military Medal along with three colleagues for an act of bravery on the battlefield that took place the previous month, on the day of his twenty first birthday. The four men volunteered to rescue two wounded members of the 14th Battalion who had fallen near the German lines. The rescue took place at four o’clock in the morning in full daylight. A number of wounded of the 14th Battalion raiding party had previously been brought in by stretcher bearers of the 23rd Battalion during darkness.
It was four months later that Claude was himself wounded while in action. Wounded in the thigh of the right leg he was evacuated to the First Australian General Hospital at Rouen and subsequently to the Stourbridge annexe of the Southern General Hospital in England, less than fifteen miles from Birmingham.. There he remained for almost four months until his discharge on 1 March 1917. Following a fourteen day furlough in Stourbridge he reported for duty at Perham Downs. Then followed several postings to several military establishments in England. During his time in England, he married Violet Alma Mary Palfreyman on 25th March, 1918 in Stourbridge, Worcestershire, England. Claude returned to the front line and was Killed in Action by a snipers bullet to the heart on 13th August, 1918. He is buried in Heath Cemetery, Harbonnieres, France
This is his story and the discovery trail of the 80 year old mystery....
